This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm wondering whatever happened to quiet evenings, when people could spend time on front porches just listening to the sounds of the neighborhood, nature or just plain silence.

When I was growing up in the Ice Age, and for many years after that, fireworks were set off on July 4, July 24 and New Year's Eve, period. Now, it seems, for reasons unknown, we must be subjected to the noise for three days preceding each holiday and three days after that. Why?

In my neighborhood, we hear them many nights throughout the year, usually around midnight. There are many dogs in my neighborhood, including my two. Many start barking at the sound of the fireworks and mine go into meltdown mode.

Many people nowadays have air-conditioning so their windows are closed. However, there are those of us who like fresh air, a joke, of course, in Utah, and we must hear the racket night after night. How about trying to have quiet evenings for a change?